Hey Everyone!! :-)
It's here! It's finally here! Yeah, I know, I technically published it a couple of weeks ago, but I schedule my blog in advance, so here's the official announcement. It's here! :-) After more than a year, the longest it's ever taken me to write and publish a book, and more technical difficulties than I want to think about, Answers From Alyce is finally available through all your favorite retailers (links below). And, as a bonus, it's the first of any of my books to make it to actual print! Yep, that's right, you can actually order a paperback version of this Answers From Alyce to have and proudly display on your shelf. Excited? I am! And since I'm currently basking in my cloud of post-publishing bliss, I've got the ebook priced at 99 cents! But that price won't last. So, hurry and get your copy before the price goes up and, just to whet your appetite, I'm posting the first chapter below. Enjoy!! :-)
Answers From Alyce, Chapter One: Strange Goings On...:
Wouldn't ya know, it all did start with a white rabbit. I was out in my yard and I saw the little furball headed for my garden. I had been meaning to get some rabbit fencing put up, but I just hadn't had the time. And I knew the danged varmint would be nibbling on my lettuce leaves again.
But I couldn't hurt it. It was just trying to live, same as everyone else. 'Sides, wild rabbits don't come in white. Now that I'd finally laid eyes on my garden-thief, I knew that this was someone's pet they had "let free" when they got tired of taking care of it. Living out in the boondocks, like I do, I usually ended up with at least five discarded pets a year.
Most of them were dead by the time I found them, but some of them, like this little critter, managed to survive long enough to make themselves a nuisance. Still, I needed to try to catch it. The little mite wouldn't last long out here, what with all the coyotes. It'd have a much better chance if I took it in to the local Humane Society, not that they weren't already overrun with society's castoffs. Danged irresponsible people.
I went back inside to get a net, hoping to catch the little bugger quickly so that I wouldn't have to set up a humane trap. I just don't have much patience for waiting. By the time I found my net and got back outside, I half expected the rabbit to have skedaddled. But, no, lo and behold, there it was, bold as brass, chowing down on my lettuce again.
I circled around the garden, trying to keep it from seeing me coming. But just as I got ready to swing my net, the rabbit's ears twitched and I knew I'd been spotted. Still, I hoped that maybe it was tame enough not to run and I brought the net down fast. It was a good swing; the net billowed out and landed right on top of where the rabbit was. Wouldn't you know it, though, the li’l thing wasn't there anymore.
Danged critter had hopped away at the last second and was standing right next to the net. And the look it gave me! Let me tell you, if its little red eyes had held the laser beams they looked like they hid? Well, boy, I'd have been toast, right there on the spot. We looked at each other for a few seconds, and then that little bugger thumped its hind foot at me and scampered away.
Well, I wasn't gonna let an overgrown rodent get the better of me. Yeah, yeah, I know, not a rodent, a lagomorph. Bull tickey. It's a giant rat with a fluffy tail and no one's gonna convince me different. And I wasn't letting it get away that easy.
I grabbed up my net and took off after the blasted critter. It ran off into the woods that border my property, but its little white rump wasn't hard to follow through the shadows under the trees. And if I could track it, the coyotes would have no trouble ‘t all.
I followed the irritating varmint to the edge of a briar patch, but it lost me there. Much as I wanted to help the little thing, I wasn't following it into a bunch of prickers. I guessed I'd have to set that trap after all, blast my luck.
Just as I started to head back to the house, the underbrush around me lit up with a strange, white glow. And, boy, let me tell ya, I didn't know what the heck to think about that. At first, I wondered if it had anything to do with those fracking fellas who'd come around asking about running a pipeline under my property. They told me they'd get the government to take my land if I didn't agree.
Now, you’d better believe me when I say I sent them fellas packing right quick. A couple blasts from my twelve-gauge put some pep in their steps, for sure. No one threatens me on my property. Eminent domain, my sweet fanny. My people've been defending this land from all comers for near on 200 years. Ain't no one gonna tell me what will or won't be dug up under the ground now, no matter how many fancy lawyers they've got. They can take my home over my cold, dead body.
But I have to say, when I saw that strange glowing, I thought maybe they'd somehow gone and put their pipeline in without me noticing. Couldn't figure out how the heck they'd done something like that, though. Then I thought maybe they had set up some kind of movie special-effects stuff to try to scare me off. Thing is, Alyce Walker don't scare easy.
I stomped around and rattled the bushes a bit, but I'd be danged if I could figure out where that glowing was coming from. After a while, I noticed it was getting brighter, and I thought that maybe discretion might be the better part of valor, just this once. As I started making for the edge of where the glowing seemed to stop, it changed to a flashing light that hurt my eyes, and the glare forced me to close them. When the light on the other side of my eyelids started to fade, and I could risk opening them again… I found I was somewhere else.
Want to find out what happens next? Grab your copy at one of the links below. Happy Reading! :-)
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